Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is one of the latest technologies in the evolution from the current 3G cellular technology to 4G cellular technology (e.g., GSM to UMTS to HSPA to LTE, or CDMA to LTE). The LTE technology provides, among other advantages, increased downlink and uplink peak data rates, scalable bandwidth, improved spectral efficiency, Internet Protocol (IP) network, and support of a wide range of terminal devices. It also provides an IP-optimized mobile network for various types of communications services.
A mobile station in a LTE technology environment contains a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) which is similar to Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) in a GSM network. The UICC is often considered as a smart card used in a mobile station to hold and distribute security related information, for example, the identity or identities of the mobile station used for accessing one or more types of mobile networks.
In a LTE network environment, currently there is a “trial-and-error” approach, based on polling, which is adopted by a UICC in a mobile station in order for the UICC to determine the status of a data call connection with a network. For example, during a boot-up or registration procedure, a UICC in a mobile station polls the user device portion of the mobile station to determine whether a data call connection has been established to the network for services. Between each polling of the user device, the UICC waits for a predetermined or random interval of time before initiating another polling operation. The UICC continues this process until it determines that a data call connection is established. This procedure is used because currently no indication or information is provided to the UICC by the mobile station, informing the UICC of the status of a data call connection to the network. This trial-and-error approach adopted by the UICC results in shortening a battery life of a mobile station and increasing a wait time for the user or subscriber before activation of the UICC and prior to his or her use of the mobile station, because the UICC may continue to poll the user device repeatedly to determine the status of a data call connection to the network. Further, there might be situations where retry counters in the UICC would be exhausted due to continuous polling when the network is not available, thereby resulting in no service to the user or subscriber even when the network becomes available later.
Hence, a need exists for an improved technique for the UICC to determine the status of a data call connection to a network, for example, for alleviating the shortening of the battery life of a mobile station and/or decreasing the wait time for the user or subscriber due to the polling based trial-and-error approach.